TechCrunch
The Withings Pulse Is A Step Closer To Activity Tracker Perfection
The Withings Pulse is the latest device in the personal activity tracker category, and it isn’t a wristband, which runs counter to the latest fad. Instead, it’s a portable rectangle not unlike the original Fitbit devices designed to be carried in a pocket or attached to clothing via an included clip. The Pulse fills out Withings’ line of home health monitoring gadgets, pairing up with its smart scales to deliver info about steps walked, calories burned, altitude traversed and heart rate.
Basics
- 128×32 OLED touchscreen
- 43mm x 22mm x 8mm
- Heart rate sensor built-in
- Micro-USB charging
- MSRP: $99.95
- Product info page
Design
The Pulse is a small package, but as per the old adage, it’s a good thing. It’s not tiny enough that it’s hard to find in your pocket, and yet it’s thin enough that it doesn’t add a bunch of bulk. The rubberized finish means you won’t lose it, and the way the OLED display is invisible when inactive is very cool. It’s got a single button, and touchscreen functionality to let you swipe through previous day totals, and it all works quite well.
The actual pulse tracker on the back of the device is the one break in the smooth exterior (barring the micro-USB port) and that aspect of the Pulse if highly functional, so the fact that it mars the unbroken surface is forgivable. I like that Withings has opted for an external clip that can be removed instead of building one in, as I’d much rather have just thrown the thing in a pocket. And the micro-USB is great, since it means you don’t have to use a specialized cable to charge the Pulse, as you often do with wristbands.
Features
The Pulse has a step counter, calorie counter, altitude meter and distance travelled tracker. All of that is pretty standard among these devices, and about as accurate as you’ll find elsewhere (which is to say not very), but the Pulse also has a pulse sensor and a time/battery indicator, as well as a sleep mode that works in tandem with an included wristband accessory. The wristband is a soft material that’s perfect for sleeping, too, and far more comfortable than the Jawbone UP or the Fitbit Flex.
I’m addicted to the pulse sensor aspect of the device, and in tandem with the Withings Smart Body Analzyer, it really helps paint a more full picture of your overall personal health. The Pulse offers the best value for money of any fitness tracking device I’ve tried so far, and that’s saying a lot.
The Bottom Line
The Withings Pulse is probably the best available option in fitness trackers, but that might depend on how you want to wear one. For wristbands, I’d still go with the Fitbit Flex, but the Pulse is my overall pick. It seems like companies operating in this space are doing a very good job of watching their competitors, gauging the needs of their users and iterating based on that information to improve things overall.
Withings just closed a big round last week, and that’s helping them grow internationally. The Pulse is a key tool in the arsenal the company has to help fuel its growth, and it’s a solid ambassador for the company’s line of devices.
Google Updates Cloud Storage With Faster Uploads, Auto-Delete And Regional Buckets
Google today announced three new features for its Cloud Storage service that brings it closer to feature parity with Amazon’s Web Services (AWS). Just like AWS’s S3, Google’s Cloud Storage now offers Object Lifecycle Management to define when an object should be deleted and lets developers choose in which region their files will be stored to reduce latency between their storage and Compute Engine instances.
Google still considers both of these features to be experimental, so the usual Google Cloud Storage SLA doesn’t currently apply.
As Google notes, having your Durable Reduced Availability Cloud Storage buckets and Compute Engine instances in the same region means they will share the same “network fabric.” This should reduce latency and increase bandwidth for applications that are very data-intensive. Google offers developers a number of U.S.-based “regions” to choose from (East 1-3, Central 1 and 2, West 1).
However, Google says users can still also just specify if they want their data to be hosted in the U.S. or EU in general and have their data spread over multiple regions. This may be a better fit if your application is about content distribution and less about computation, the company says.
With Object Lifecycle Management, Google also now offers a feature that has long been available to AWS users. With this, developers can now set expiration rules for their files to decide when they should be automatically deleted. Just like AWS, Google uses a basic XML document to manage these rules, and the overall feature set also seems to mirror Amazon’s service.
Developers on Google’s cloud platform will now also be able to upload their files faster thanks to Gsutil 3.4, which now uploads large objects in parallel. This update automatically uploads larger files over multiple connections to increase TCP throughput. It’s automatically enabled and developers won’t have to change their workflow. And if you have too much data and even parallel uploads are too slow, remember you can always ship your hard drives to Google, too.
eBay Brings Same-Day Delivery Service eBay Now To Desktop, Prepares Regional Expansions
eBay Now, the same-day shipping service that first debuted for San Francisco residents nearly a year ago before further expansions into San Jose and New York, is preparing to broaden its service yet again, with added support for the Bay Area peninsula, plus Brooklyn and Queens, as well as Chicago and Dallas later this summer, as previously reported. In addition, the company is today launching a PC version of eBay Now for the desktop.
According to Dane Glasgow, eBay’s VP of Mobile & Local, the company chose to bring the previously mobile-focused eBay Now delivery service to the desktop, because those who visit eBay from both web and mobile are some of the company’s most valuable customers. In a given week, he says, 21 percent of eBay’s visitors come from multiple devices – a PC and a mobile device – but they make up 44 percent of eBay’s gross merchandise volume.
With eBay Now on the desktop, what before felt like something of a niche utility takes on more of the appearance of a fully-fledged e-commerce site. On the dedicated homepage, users can browse and search for products available at neighborhood stores, as well as view product information including descriptions, pricing, ratings and reviews – just as they would if shopping a retailer’s website directly.
eBay Now is supported by “hundreds” of merchants, Glasgow tells us, but the company declines to provide exact numbers at this time. However, it does have relationships with several well-known retailers, including The Home Depot, Target, Macy’s, GNC, Walgreens, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Office Depot, Urban Outfitters, RadioShack, and AutoZone, for example.
These and other merchants make their inventory available to eBay shoppers in the supported delivery areas, who can then take delivery of that item (minimum order is $25) in less than an hour for a $5 delivery fee. To date, Glasgow says that while there has been some usage of the service for last-minute or emergency needs – like parts to fix a broken down bike, or something needed quickly for a meeting – users have also been ordering a variety of items you may not expect to see on a one-hour delivery service, like air conditioning units for hot NY apartments, iPads, TVs, consumables, home and garden items, and apparel.
After placing their orders on the new desktop site, eBay Now users will also be able to see who their courier is and how to reach them, in case there’s information they need to share after purchase. They can checkout on the site using credit or debit cards, or eBay-owned PayPal. And the service keeps customers’ last few delivery addresses on file, so they don’t have to fill in the form again each time they shop.
Currently, eBay Now works well as a complement to eBay.com’s option which allows online shoppers to pick up items at local stores when they don’t need something immediately. However, Glasgow says the plan is to soon introduce a level of service in between the one-hour delivery and the in-store visit. Later this summer, the eBay Now will introduce a new capability that lets shoppers to choose their delivery window. “This is one of the top customer-requested features,” Glasgow notes. “This will be great for the working professionals, who can choose to have their orders delivered to them at the end of the day at the office or even at home,” he explains.
The feature is also an indication that eBay has begun to work out some of the logistics behind how a service like this needs to work, though it will still be some time before the company has perfected this at scale – or before it can make the service profitable. eBay doesn’t discuss what sort of revenue sharing agreement it may have in place with participating merchants at this time, saying that the program is still in a pilot phase and the focus on profitability it still to come.
However, adds Glasgow, “our existing [business] models in our marketplace for connecting buyers and sellers are relevant, whether delivery is a part of the equation or not.”
Today, eBay is one of many e-commerce sites focusing on same-day deliveries. Others including Walmart, Google and Amazon have also been running experiments in this area – the latter most recently with the expansion of AmazonFresh, the company’s online grocery service. Startups like TaskRabbit, Postmates, and others are also catering to the on-demand trend.
Where eBay sees itself fitting in within this new market, is serving as a partner – not a competitor – to the retailers who sign on to eBay Now. But that doesn’t mean that it will be the exclusive home for these businesses’ same-day efforts. In addition to supporting eBay Now, many of its merchants, including Target, Walgreens, Toys R Us and Office Depot, to name a few, are hedging their bets by joining Google’s Shopping Express service, too.
For eBay, that means it has to do more to make the entire experience of using the service something that brings shoppers back time and again. Scheduled deliveries, cross-platform support, and expanded service areas are features that could help with that. But at the end of the day, it’s Amazon which has the advantage here, even if it’s been so far relatively quiet, or even downplaying its efforts in this area. There’s a feeling that somewhere, there’s a shoe that’s about to drop, which is why businesses like eBay are making sure to drum up interest for early programs like eBay Now - before it’s too late.
Post updated to reflect that eBay has now switched on the expansions in the Bay Area and NY earlier than previously expected – meaning, today, 7/22/13
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